There are various reasons why sending text messages instead of calling during emergency situations makes sense. People dealing with a flood, tsunami, hurricane or anything of the sort, they may not get voice reception well enough or the background noise may be too great to hear anything for instance. The deaf or hearing-impaired can also benefit from such services.
This is why the FCC has urged 911 call centers and public officials to create more centers that take text messages along with voice calls. However, the amount of centers that take texts is very small compared to 911 call centers nationwide and they are of limited use.
"In the future, text-to-911 will be widely available in the United States," FCC says in a statement. "the ability to contact 911 using text is only available on a limited basis in a few markets. For this reason, you should not rely on text to reach 911,"
The future may not be too long as the commission made a statement urging both wireless telephone companies and providers of interconnected text messaging services to allow text messages availability for to 911 operators.
"The Commission encouraged industry-developed solutions to achieve this goal, and proposed rules that would require all covered text providers to support text-to-911 by December 31, 2014," FCC says.
The situation today is that only 59 out of more than 6,000 emergency communication centers support taking text messages instead of phone calls. This is a very tiny percentage and it makes it difficult for those with voice, hearing or other impairments to reach operators. Here is a list of all the states and counties with dispatch services available.
However, the national rollout of the service has just started and it is already being supported by all the major wireless carriers -- such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile . However, unlike calling 911 operators, texting will require users to have a data plan in place.
Lets hope that the call centers start implementing the changes by the proposed Dec. 31, 2014 date. Keep in mind that calling is and should always be the quicker method to reach operator, but it is good to see more options appearing.
